A GILBERT AND SULLIVAN JEWELRY BOXA Double-Bill ofThe Best of The WorstAfter The Carpet QuarrelThe Finest Music from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Grand Duke and Utopia, Ltd.AndCox and Box(Co-Produced with The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company)

​Formed in 1960 and still going strong, Hyde Park's The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company provides first-class entertainment to the University of Chicago community and the entire city, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera is very excited to partner with them to bring our mutual audiences some wonderful music from two of Gilbert and Sullivan's works that are very seldom produced, and to give them the chance to take in a fully-staged version of Cox and Box, for which Sullivan supplied the music.

TT-O's Producing Artistic Director Aaron Hunt has enjoyed a long collaboration with The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, having sung the patter-roles in seven of their productions since arriving in Chicago, including in their only productions of The Grand Duke and Utopia, Ltd. Additionally, Hunt has served as choreographer for the company, and was the Associate Director of their recent production of Iolanthe. As The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company seeks to expand their season, it seems only natural that the two companies would join forces to give Chicago another opportunity to experience terrific Gilbert and Sullivan productions, particularly at a time when other companies are moving away from this charming repertoire.

The new concert musical review, The Best of The Worst, After the Carpet Quarrel, The Finest Music in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Grand Duke and Utopia, Ltd., is conceived, curated, and will be narrated by Hunt. It examines the final two operettas cobbled together by Gilbert and Sullivan after their partnership began to unravel, via a compilation of the very best arias, duets, trios, quartets, quintets, and choruses from these two works. The various lovers in the two pieces, jostling their way toward satirical happiness, provide the first operatic classroom-examination in Transgressive Theatre-Opera’s 2017/18 The School For Lovers season.

This new piece is paired with a fully-staged production of the Burnand/Sullivan gem, Cox and Box. Written for three men, two of whom occupy the same apartment at different times of the day according to the machinations of the third, finds the two rakes discovering that they have made love to, and then connived to flee from the same woman. TT-O and The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company have cast three women in the roles, who will appear in male drag. This is a new and stimulating concept for the production of this piece, rewarding the ladies an opportunity to step into the shoes of the scheming men, pointing up the lessons to be learned in even the frothiest operetta.

Singing the three gents are sopranos Teaira Burge and Celeste Peake, and mezzo-soprano Susan Gosdick. Both Burge and Peake appeared in The Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company's latest production of Iolanthe, with Burge singing the leading lady role of Phyllis.